'The Age of Chance is a wonderful book, scholarly and at the same time compulsive reading' - Heather Worth, University of Auckland

'The Age of Chance is a wonderful book, scholarly and at the same time compulsive reading' - Heather Worth, University of Auckland

Truscott was one of the really tough generals,"" soldier-cartoonist Bill Mauldin of the 45th Infantry Division once wrote. ""He could have eaten a ham like Patton for breakfast any morning and picked his teeth with the man's pearl-handled pistols."" Not one merely to act the part of commander, Mauldin remembered, ""Truscott spent half his time at the front - the real front - with nobody in attendance but a nervous Jeep driver and a worried aide."" In this biography of Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., author Harvey Ferguson tells the story of how Truscott - despite his hardscrabble beginnings, patchy education, and questionable luck - not only made the rank of army lieutenant general, earning a reputation as one of World War II's most effective officers along the way, but was also given an honorary promotion to four-star general seven years after his retirement. For all his accomplishments and celebrated heroic action, Truscott was not one for self-aggrandizement, which may explain in part why historians have neglected him until now. The Last Cavalryman, drawing on personal papers only recently made available, gives the first full picture of this singular man's extraordinary life and career. Ferguson describes Truscott's near-accidental entry into the U.S. Cavalry (propelled by Pancho Villa's 1916 raids) and his somewhat halting rise through the ranks - aided by fellow cavalryman George S. Patton, Jr., who steered him into the nascent armored force at the right time. The author takes us through Truscott's service in the Second World War, from creating the U.S. Army Rangers to engineering the breakout from Anzio and leading the ""masterpiece"" invasion of southern France. Ferguson finishes his narrative by detailing the general's postwar work with the CIA, where he acted as President Dwight Eisenhower's eyes and ears within the agency. A compelling story in itself, this biography of Lucian K. Truscott, Jr. - a cavalryman to the last - fills out an important chapter in American military history.

In 1932, the worst year of the Great Depression, more than twenty thousand mostly homeless World War I veterans trekked to the nation's capital to petition Congress to grant them early payment of a promised bonus. The Hoover Administration and the local government urged Washington, DC, police chief Pelham Glassford to forcefully drive this "bonus army" out of the city. Instead, he defied both governments for months and found food and shelter for the veterans until Congress voted on their request. Glassford's efforts to persuade federal and local officials to deal sympathetically with the protesters were ultimately in vain, but his proposed solutions, though disregarded by his supervisors, demonstrate that compassion and empathy could be more effective ways of dealing with radical protests than violent suppression.